by JJ SUTHERLAND
You remember those six word memoirs that were all the rage a while back? They were modeled on a story Hemingway allegedly wrote on a dare:

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.



typewriter
Grant Dougall
.
Well now there's a new book "Hint Fiction," a collection of slightly longer efforts, 25 words or less, edited by Robert Smartwood. From the New Yorker:
“Hint Fiction” gives writers a little more room to roam. A hinting story, Swartwood explains, should do in twenty-five words what it could do in twenty-five hundred, that is, it “should be complete by standing by itself as its own little world.” And, like all good fiction, it should tell a story while gesturing toward all the unknowable spaces outside the text.
You can preview a bunch of them here. My favorite is “Houston, We Have a Problem,” by J. Matthew Zoss.
I’m sorry, but there’s not enough air in here for everyone. I’ll tell them you were a hero.
Though, "Through Tiny Windows," by Barry Napier, has a nice Borgesian feel to it.
When they opened the cadaver, they found a house. A couple argued inside. There was a rhythm to their words, like the beating of a heart.
Not only can you read more at the link above but if you read the comment section here you will find many more, by NPR readers. This is so neat. I'm adding it to my list to look for at the library.



Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato